Saga - 2017, Síða 116

fornmannabúðir sem þar eru tilgreindar tengjast persónum sem
koma fyrir í Njáls sögu. Sú staðreynd beinir kastljósinu enn lengra
aftur í tímann, til síðustu áratuga þrettándu aldar, þegar sagan var
samin. Hugsanlega hitti Einar Ólafur Sveinsson naglann á höfuðið
þegar hann skrifaði í bók sinni Á Njálsbúð (1943):
Ef til vill er Njálsbúð líkt farið og gröf Hamlets; að vísu er hér gömul
búð, en mundi ekki nafnið stafa frá miklu listaverki, sem var svo mátt-
ugt, að menn sáu allt, sem þar var sagt frá, og urðu að finna því stað?
Frá þessu listaverki, Brennu-Njálssögu, eru allar hugarsýnir okkar hér
runnar.92
Abstract
j ón karl helgason
WHO MOULDED ÞINGVELLIR INTO A HISTORICAL MONUMENT?
The last year in which the Althing, or Icelandic parliament, operated at Þingvellir
was 1798. For the next two years, it met at Hólavellir School in Reykjavík, but was
then abolished. When the Althing sessions were no longer a living aspect of
Þingvellir, there existed a new pretext for turning the site into a historical monu-
ment. The article deals with this development over the first half of the 19th
century, with particular emphasis on two British travel books: Travels in the Island
of Iceland (1811), by George Steuart Mackenzie, and Iceland, or the Journal of a
Residence in that Island (1818), by Ebenezer Henderson. These authors write pas-
sionately on the significance of Þingvellir, both in history and for Icelandic
national identity, thereby contrasting with the British travellers who had written
on Iceland during the period between 1772 and 1809.
Furthermore, the article delves into the thoughts and writings of Icelanders
who were contemporary to Mackenzie and Henderson, exploring in particular
how the ideas of the British authors on Þingvellir harmonise with those of Finnur
Magnússon and Baldvin Einarsson in the 1810s and ‘20s. The attitudes of these
Icelanders, as Sveinbjörn Rafnsson recently observed, were reflected in the grip-
ping Þingvellir poems of the romantic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson, which he com-
posed in the 1830s and ’40s.
In closing, the article points out that the nationalistic sentiments evident in
Mackenzie and Henderson’s writings may have been influenced by the tensions
hver skóp þingvelli …? 115
„Íslensk þjóðernisvitund á óþjóðlegum öldum“, Skírnir 173 (vor 1999), bls.
141−178; Ragnheiður kristjánsdóttir, „Rætur íslenskrar þjóðernisstefnu“.
92 Einar Ól. Sveinsson, Á Njálsbúð. Bók um mikið listaverk (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka
bókmenntafélag 1943), bls. 4.
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